Daily Archives: July 13, 2012

Interview By Chad Koeplinger Chad Koeplinger: Who are some of the tattoo artists that you were interested in at that point? What were you looking at tattoo-wise? What was blowing your mind? Valerie Vargas: At that point I don’t think I became fully aware of people that I like now until I already started my apprenticeship, because that’s when I was allowed to have a look through the books that for me at the time were way too expensive -I couldn’t afford them. And my boss had all of the Tattootimes. He never looked at them anymore but they were up on the shelf and any time it was quiet I’d have a look. I became more aware of Ed Hardy and more of the West Coast kind of guys. But even then I was still struggling to remember names, I just knew the work. I remember some backpieces that are still pretty awesome. And it was also through my friendship with Stewart in the beginning that he was really on it. He knew who everybody was, what they were doing, and he was totally stoked about everything, and he taught me a fair bit about it… Read More »